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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Another SWEET Indie Review featuring Pinkey Nails Lenore and Poppy

So, Wassup peeps? Kinda out of character for me to publish more than one polish review in a week, but I did not want to put this one off - tiny nasty nubbins or not. My awesome friend Sara has been experimenting with hand-mixed frankens for a while. The big news is, her hobby has recently become a small home business venture, Pinkey Nails officially opened on Etsy barely a month ago, and I appreciate the opportunity to show you guys a new indie that you may not know about yet. A couple added bonuses are that I get to try out some awesome new polish and help my friend gain some exposure! So let's do this review, shall we?

First swatch is Lenore. It's like a metallic mint green with a slight blue undertone to it, and a healthy dose of holo blended in. In certain positions and lighting, you can see a subtle pink shimmer. I love that base color, it reminds me of the base in Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, although I don't have the DL to compare it to. I guess I could be totally off on that one. The glitter combination in Lenore is interesting. There's black matte diamonds, red matte hearts, white matte hex glitters. I'm not exactly pleased with how the photos turned out. I've swatched this 2 times and I still can't seem to pick up the holo or the pink shimmer. Bummer. Anywho, just trust me - it's in there. At least the photos are pretty dang color accurate. I wouldn't bulls**t you about polish, it's serious business! Check out mah nubby-nubs!

See, told you I have retarded short nail beds. One of the reasons I was so upset about ripping the nail on my bird finger down to the nub. Lame. Super lame. I let my OCDish tendencies get the better of me and I hacked 'em all off. Don't laugh, it's not funny! I decided to post a closeup shot even though my nubs look stupid and I couldn't capture the holo. I feel I should tell you that I don't think my photos due Lenore justice. It's a gorgeous color. Here's some nubs for your face...

I'm still frustrated about my inability to photograph the slight pink shimmer and holo. You'd think it wouldn't be an issue with the new fancy-smancy camera. I think I should enroll in a class or something to learn how to use this damn thing correctly. It still takes pretty decent shots considering I don't have a clue what I'm doing and I'm constantly playing around with the settings. I'll improve over time (I hope). Anywho, the formula of Lenore is awesome - perfect consistency. I didn't have any issues with glitter placement, but I only added a few since my nubbins are so damn small anyway. It's pretty sheer. I used 2 coats of OPI Ridge Filler as a base and layered 3 coats of Lenore over it for both swatches above. I decided to swatch it over Seche Clear out of curiosity. Check it out yo!

I was relieved to be able to catch some of the holo in this shot. Even 3 coats comes out pretty sheer using a clear base coat. Not that I'm complaining, I'm interested to try Lenore out over some other shades. I have a feeling it will look amazing over a dark blue or green shimmer. I intentionally left off most of the glitter in the swatch above, the black diamond and white hexes were accidental and I was feeling a bit lazy so I didn't bother brushing them off. I think I may prefer to wear it this way. I would love to see a version of Lenore containing green matte diamonds, I'm not even sure if you can get those but the more polish I see with little diamonds, the more I like 'em. Now I shall tell you about my second, and favorite Pinkey Nails polish...Poppy! I love that name btw. It's a sheer pearl white loaded with pink shimmer and holo micro-glitter, topped off with the perfect amount of little black matte diamonds. I think this one will look awesome layered over other shades too. For this swatch, I opted for a tinted base and used 2 coats of OPI Ridge Filler then layered 3 coats of Poppy over that. I figured this one was a bit too sheer to try with a clear base and no undies. I love the way it turned out....

Nice, but I can't wait to see how Poppy looks over other shades - a pastel yellow in particular. Hmm, might have to try that in a couple days actually. The only thing I don't like about the swatch above is my photo. Anywho, trust me...Poppy is much prettier in person, and I'm sure it looks best on longer nails. My tiny stubs look gross, I hate 'em! Anywho, here's a closeup for good measure...

I did manage to capture a tiny bit of the holo and pink shimmer in that shot. Those black diamonds are adorable. Poppy's formula is just as awesome as Lenore, perfect consistency to work with. Dry time seems good. It's just such a bummer to have to swatch with these itty bitty stubs, there's not much there to paint! Anywho, I've spoken with Sara about it and she's generously agreed to extend her 20% Off Promo for my blog stalkers! Awesome huh? Use code OPEN2013 at check out to receive 20% off your order from Pinkey Nails on Etsy.com. Hold on a sec though, I made it even easier for ya...Here is the link to her Etsy shop. Sara not only sells her hand-mixed polish, she's got several listings for some cute and unique hand made jewelry. You'll also find some nail art and frankening goodies at decent prices so check it out! To stay up-to-date on shop news you can like Pinkey Nails on Facebook if you'll gimme a click here.

Now, here's the part where I give you my honest opinions on Pinkey Nails as a new indie brand...The two I tried were awesome to work with, and I love the sheer, shimmer-holo finish. Lenore and Poppy are both gorgeous alone and I'm sure they're just as awesome used as layering polish. I love how Sara implemented holo into both of them, and I plan to try more of her pretties in the future. In fact, there's an awesome holo-glitter top coat listed on the shop appropriately named Shiny Star that is at the top of my wishlist, and I have a feeling that one will be one of her best sellers. I love layering polish, make it a holo and I'm sold! Okie dokie peeps, you know me by now (so to speak). I can't end this post without interrogating you guys. What do you think of Pinkey Nails? Did you check out her Shiny Star listing yet? Don't you friggin' love it? Comments make me happy, let me know if you're using the coupon code. I'd love to know what you decided to order ;) I want to order Shiny Star real bad but I'm poor till payday, again. Stupid bills! It's ok though, I can live vicariously though you. Anywho, I should tell ya these polishes were given to me for review. All these opinions are my own, and my opinion is Pinkey Nails is pretty darn awesome! Hey, don't forget the vote-like-share contest is still going on Facebook! Share it each day for an extra entry. Mmmkay, I think that is all for now folks...'Till next time.

3 comments:

These are cute! Don't sweat about catching holo or colour shifts in light boxes. Sometimes it's hard to get it in natural light because of the wave lengths of light. Here's a good article on it: http://brightestbulbinthebox.blogspot.ca/2013/02/how-does-it-work-holographic-nail.html

So you might want to try photographing holo properties maybe outside on a sunny day!